Reviews: Hammers and Mallets

I was in Ocean State Job Lots two weeks ago and saw some deadblow mallets for sale. There was a 1-LB and a larger one (3-LB?). At $3.99 for the small one I didn’t have much to lose. And I didn’t lose a cent. What a bargain! It works perfectly and does not leave any marks and does not get dented itself. I don’t think you can go wrong when there are many other folks out there trying to sell these mallets at over $20.
This is a perfect example of what we shou...

I cannot take credit for the new Hickory handles in these hammers, fellow LJ Allyoop made the handles from Hickory for me. I have had the hammer heads for many years , always intending to make handles for them, but as usual, they were put aside and forgotten, until one day fellow LJ and friend Allyoop, mentioned that he was interested in blacksmithing, then I remembered the hammer heads, I showed him the heads and made a deal with him that if he made a handle for me for the crosspeen hammer I...

I have had mixed results – mostly poor – when driving brads into picture frames to secure the pictures. Lots of bent brads. Because I was about to install glass in a cabinet door using strips of wood held in place by brads, and because I did not want to mess up at this final stage in my project, I ordered one of Lee Valley’s special picture framing hammers. This hammer has a rotating triangular head with a totally flat face, and a round head with a flat face. In use, the two...

I considered building a mallet, but with so many other projects in the queue, I decided to buy the 4 1/2” mallet from grizzly.com.
The handle finish is a little rough. There is also dirt and a brown substance all over the mallet. The pictures are of the new, unused mallet. Many mallet heads are made from several parts laminated together. This mallet head is a solid piece with a tapered hole bored through for the handle. The result is a somewhat sloppy fit.
At $12.95, it wasn’...

This is the monster Stanley 55-099 Fat Max Xtreme Fubar. Being a recent addition to my hammer arsenal, I am still putting it through its paces. It is the big brother to the Stanley 55-119 Fubar, which I have had for a few years. It is bigger, meaner, and much heavier at 4.5 pounds. It adds the claw type nail puller, similar to a regular hammer, which allows more versatility for pulling fasteners. The grip is identical to the 55-119, which I love: Great contour, no slip, and a great feel...

This scary looking thing is the Dead On 18-Inch Annihilator Utility and Wrecking Bar. It is used for demolition and general purposes. It is kind of a Swiss Army Knife of hammers with many uses: Hammer, Nail Puller, Board Straightener Drywall Demolition Axe, Wrench, Tile Puller/Ripper, Wire Stripper, and Bottle Opener. It weighs in at almost 4 pounds. Besides intimidating innocent 2×4’s and drywall, this hammer is great. I have used it for day-to-day woodwork and for building heavy-...

Yo whats up everybody I wanted to do a review on Tommy Mcdonalds grand slam tools. I got the home run pack in may 2009. The home run pack includes a bench bat, 2 parring blocks, and a marking gauge. I dont use the parring blocks a lot but I use the marking gauge and the bench bat a lot. The bench bat, parring blocks, and the marking gauge are all made out of maple and the marking gauge has a hock blade. If you didn’t already know this Tommy McDonald just announced that he got a t.v deal...

Stiletto 14 Oz. Hammer Overview
Isn’t a hammer just a hammer? Well, yes it is, but as you know there are different types of hammers such a claw hammer, framing hammer, brick laying hammer and more. For this review we are going to cover the Stiletto Framing hammer. The Stiletto is one of our favorite hammers around. Out of the four guys who run this site, three of us have used a Stiletto hammer in our day to day work for a long time. Some longer than others, sorry just had to get that ...

Recently I started looking for a mallet for chopping mortises and dovetails. I looked at a lot of different mallets. I never really liked the traditional mallets like this one. When I looked at them in the stores, they always seemed too big for their weight. Not too long ago Christopher Schwarz talked about this mallet on his blog. He talked about the same things I didn’t like about these type of mallets. He then came across this mallet and it was different. They make these malle...